Council of Chalcedon

The Thirty Canons of the Holy and Fourth Council of Chalcedon (451 AD).

Translation from the Ante-Nicene Fathers, Series II, Vol. XIV. For a complete electronic copy, visit the Christian Classics Ethereal Library, the New Advent Library. Italics in the text by John Wijngaards.

Canon XV. “A Woman shall not receive the laying on of hands as a deaconess under forty years of age, and then only after searching examination. And if, after she has had hands laid on her and has continued for a time to minister, she shall despise the grace of God and give herself in marriage, she shall be anathematized and the man united to her.”

Ancient summary of Canon XV. No person shall be ordained deaconess except she be forty years of age. If she shall dishonour her ministry by contracting a marriage, let her be anathema.

This canon is found in the Corpus Juris Canonici, Gratian's Decretum, Pars II., Causa XXVII, Quaest. I., Canon xxiij.

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